Carla's World

Parker and I wander down the steep driveway on a quiet, still, cold morn. A house wren announces our arrival; Titmice twitter among the dogwoods. The sun's rays filter through bare trees creating a shadow forest in the pasture. Parker sniffs the usual spots with the waxing gibbous moon hanging serenely in the clear blue sky. I stop and marvel at the peacefulness!      No cars.      No lawn mowers.      No leaf blowers.      No barking dogs. We head back up the hill.

Today, Dan and I visited Clam Bayou Nature Preserve in St. Petersburg, FL. We walked along the many trails in the park, built specifically to help preserve waterways and protect the natural water filtering of mangroves and grasses. We saw quite a few birds such as egrets, osprey, ducks, and cormorants; but the white ibis ( Eudocimus albus) was fun to watch. This group was eating something (grass?) along the edge of a waterway.  I enjoyed seeing their curved, orange beaks, pink backward bending legs, and the way they eyed us as we walked by.   

 Today, Dan and I went kayaking with Capt Yak, aka Greg Stoppelmoor, around Shell Island Preserve. It was a cool winter day, upper 60's, with a light wind at the start, but got a bit stronger toward the late afternoon. The mangrove "caves" were very calm and quiet places to explore. I had never done that before, so it was a lovely new experience. Greg told us there are three types of mangrove trees in Florida, red, black, and white mangroves. The red ones produce seed pods (propagules) that we had seen along the gulf coast. Black mangroves grow taller, and white mangroves tend to grow more inland.  Another fun part of our afternoon was being joined by, at first just one, then two cormorants! They would dive and swim along with us. It was fun to see them dive, swim ahead a bit, then come up. Unfortunately, we had no fish to share. We also saw a flock of white pelicans in the distance, brown pelicans diving for mullet, which were leaping (for joy?) out of the water ahead of...

This horseshoe crab ( Limulus polyphemus ) on the beach was not alive; it was washed ashore overnight. But I was reminded how scientifically important these ancient animals are to medical research. Horseshoe crabs have been around for more than 300 million years, making them even older than dinosaurs. They look like prehistoric crabs, but are actually more closely related to scorpions and spiders. It has a hard exoskeleton and 10 legs, which it uses for walking along the seafloor. I was surprised to learn that it also uses appendages and legs to crush food, such as  worms and clams, and maybe some algae, then uses those appendages located in front of its mouth to carry  it to the mouth. No teeth! This one was found along the Gulf coast (St. Pete beach), but most are located along the Atlantic seaboard. The Delaware Bay ecosystem considers them a keystone species.  Horseshoe crab blood is a bright shade of blue, as well as having remarkable antibacterial properties that ha...

 Sea gulls are ubiquitous to beaches. Today, at St. Pete Beach, there were so many gulls with many different markings. I am not an expert in bird identification. This picture was quite a grouping from this morning.  Even though the picture isn't great, you can still see variations, not only in different species, but within the species. In additions, there were so many calls and behaviors, and I enjoyed watching the antics of pairs and small groups. There were many instances of scary "The Birds" movie scenes, especially when people had food on the beach! The young man next to us left a food box on his lounge when he went for a walk, and it wasn't long before a gull found it and started poking at it! Luckily, it was empty and someone threw it away.  When I get home, I'll pull out the bird ID book and get to work!

 Traditionally, the first day of every year, we should eat a "good luck" meal. I know that black-eyed peas represent coins, or money, as do greens. Anyway, I found a recipe in "Real Simple" magazine, the January 2021 issue, called Black-eyed Pea Ribollita.  My recipe is not exactly the same, but is inspired by it. I thought it was delicious.  Try it and see what you think! Recipe was pared down for two people, and took about 45 minutes. Ingredients 1 3oz block parmesan cheese with rind 1/2 a 12 oz package of sausages, (I used 2 chicken sausage links) cooked according to package directions 2 Tbs olive oil 1/4 c chopped sweet onion 1/4 tsp salt 1 15 oz can collard greens 1 15 oz can crushed tomatoes (I actually used left-over spaghetti sauce.) 2 c chicken broth 1 15 oz can black-eyed peas, drained & rinsed Croutons for topping Removed rind from the cheese, and coarsely grate cheese. Reserve the rind. Cook sausage according to package directions, then cut into smal...